


100 Nights of NejiTen

by Baye



Category: Naruto
Genre: Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Kissing, Masturbation, Smut Collection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-05-30 06:45:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6413188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Baye/pseuds/Baye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It would take some time before he could truly indulge himself in the sinful pleasure that she proposed. [ NejiTen smut anthology following a 100 prompt kink meme. ]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Kissing

**#1.** **Kissing**

* * *

Contact.

Low lights shaded the dips and dimensions of their faces and the shadows fluttered in reverence of the moon, peaking through the curtains like a voyeuring white lantern. Breaths floated in the air, their loving whispers adorned by helpless little grins. Peck, peck, peck, heated quick kisses he delivered along her jaw, his lips at her neck, diving for the grooves of her collarbone to which she sighed and giggled. Her hand surfed through his waterwall of silky dark hair, the other caressing his smooth toned arm, but then she tired of his attention focused away from the one place she really wanted him and touched the underneath of his chin. Fingers lured her lover to look at her face, instead of the rest of her body that followed his descent down towards her bra. Their eyes met.

Even in the dark, Neji could see so much love in those eyes. Pure, genuine love, the once-in-a-lifetime kind of love, the kind that proved the deep connection of every ounce of their beings, of their souls. He recognized this feeling without a shred of doubt, because he had never told nor been told by anyone that they loved him (except for one, a person long in the past) and this feeling was definitely unique. In his chest, his heart radiated a full, attractive warmth, just seeing those doe brown eyes return his gaze and pause, _gods_ , he was so ineffably enamored with this woman. His body yearned for hers before he knew what he was doing.

There wasn't an electric shock or a show of fireworks erupting when they kissed, as this was not the first time—not by a long shot. But it was the first time in such a setting, the first time that kissing her tempted him to slide the strap of her tank top down her shoulders. He wanted to see more of her than he'd ever seen before.

Tenten was the one to deepen it. She let her back fall to the bed and clung to the soft fabric of his shirt, causing his body to fall with her. Supporting himself on his arms, Neji hovered over her, eyelids low, breathing softly, holding back a groan when she slid her hand under his loose white shirt and stroked his hard stomach. Her touch was warm and gentle, drawing a slow, deliberate path up to his neck, and she beckoned him closer below. Then, their lips graced each other again.

“Mmph,” she sighed into him, pleasure thick in her moan. Her lips melded with his, an exchange of push and pull with angled moving jaws growing more needy for furthered contact. He liked hearing her moan, it sparked something rare and unfamiliar in his body that he didn’t know could feel so tempting. And… unsatisfying. It wasn’t enough, and he wasn’t sure what more he desired from her or of himself, but he wanted to go farther. Feeling bold, Neji traced his slick tongue across her bottom lip, dyed reddish from kissing, and she shivered deliciously at the foreign new sensation. Blissful hot tidings spread from her delirious head to her curling toes; she opened herself up to him, widely embracing the feverish insistence of his lips onto hers again.

Even he couldn't withhold the heavy groan that escaped him when her tongue snuck past his lips and curled inside, lazily gliding across his own. He trembled. A dangerous desperation festered and swelled within his core, burning away every shred of coherency. Persistently, he motioned his tongue back against hers, creating a simmering hot faint pressure as their tongues lightly pushed and slid so salaciously, feverishly, and he was allowed only two short pants to breathe as he withdrew for air before she tugged on his hair and pulled him back into her lascivious orifice.

Neji hadn’t ever seen Tenten like this. She was all over him, hands roaming his body everywhere she could reach, her eager tongue eliciting more labored groans from his chest. He was still not used to such intimacy, being touched by someone like this. His hips squirmed in the hold of her straddling legs around his lower half. There was that _unmentionable discomfort_ he never cared to acknowledge straining against his boxers and for a very real moment, he felt nervous. She kissed his neck, his collarbone, and licked slow whorls on his chest. The temperature in the room must have risen fifty degrees because his body suddenly felt hot—especially _that_ abhorrent place— and his breath left him in short hot puffs of air. Neji let his eyes fall shut and relished in her sinful adulations, concentrating on controlling that blood-engorged nuisance until soft fingers traveled below his waist.

Her hand was sliding down his pelvis.

His eyes shot open and recoiled from her touch. “What are you doing?”

“Huhn...?” Her dazed expression could only be described as lustful and wanting, a sordid line of saliva running down the corner of her lip. “I… Oh, s—sorry!” Neji didn’t miss the way her entire face blazed red. With lightning speed she removed her searching hand from his groin, profusely sputtering another apology. He closed his eyes again and wordlessly removed himself from her to sit on the edge of the bed. By the sinking of the mattress he could tell that she was sitting up as well, but neither said anything.

Why had he stopped her?

Over a minute must have passed and she reached out for his shoulder. “Neji, I—”

“I should go.” He announced, rising from the bed. “Hiashi-sama will be suspicious if I return to the compound late.”

“Oh…” The disappointment in her voice was tangible. It almost made him want to stay.  “Well… alright. See you tomorrow, Neji.”

She was watching him as he dressed himself, which sounded curiously sordid in his head. It was a conscious decision to not look at her directly, or else those eyes of hers might lure him back to the warmth of her mouth and the feel of her tongue, and he needed to leave as soon as possible, because…

Tenten stuttered just before he reached the door, “If—did I—If I went too far, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel…”

“It’s fine.”

He left her apartment in then and returned (though it felt more like a retreat) to his home, and all he could do was wonder what was wrong with him.


	2. Masturbation

 

* * *

 

**#2. Masturbation**

So desperately had he tried to grasp the elusive sleep that adamantly refused his hold and still he suffered the same result. Every time his eyes closed he saw the girl that wasn’t there, touching him, working him down, . Her touches were tattooed in his memory that burned blazoned whenever he thought of the things that they had done to him. A sweet tongue exotic to his skin, swirling like a paintbrush, his mouth the willing canvas, setting him on fire, coherency the glowing embers crumbling to ash and then gone when the wind of desire whispered “lust” in its path. Flush had she been beneath him, soft and beautiful and enticing like a feast to a depraved, starved man.

It had been… exhilarating.

And it was _disgusting_.

And it made him so desperate for more that it was embarrassing.

He understood that leaving Tenten like that was incredibly rude and cowardly of him, and that she deserved an explanation next time they meet. That was the right thing to do. That was what any dignified man would do. And he could predict her exact response, something along the lines of a stammering “No, I shouldn’t have—” and “It’s okay, I get why you did,” and she would never touch him like that again. Not unless he told her he wanted her to.

His fingers pushed back the fringes of his bangs. Her exact intent had been clear when her hand traveled southwards.

Sex.

Neji knew it only for its practical purpose: reproduction. He had attended that mandatory health class his final year at the academy and he understood the basics of how it worked. Penetration. Repeated insertion. Ejaculation. Complete, and if pregnancy was not successful then the process started all over again.

If only it were as simple as that. Fragmented pieces of conversations heard as he tuned in and out from nonsensical musings of his fellow male-kind suggested that there was so much more to it than what the textbooks transcribed. He learned that it was much harder for a female to be pleased during the act, that pleasuring them required far more effort than what most men deemed worthwhile, that there were “techniques” and “tricks” to satisfying a woman on the farthest planet from his sphere of awareness. The harsh truth was Neji was on the complete outside of the finer things of sex and its mysteries. Like any boy in his blooming adolescence the earliest inclines of temptation hadn’t eluded his interest, the occasional raised eyebrow at cleavage exposed a little too much and the spark of electricity shooting up his groin when he straddled Tenten during training, holding her hands above her head, dominating her.

And it absolutely _revolted_ him.

A lot had changed about Neji over the years from his fatalistic pre-teens to where he was now—newly seventeen—but through and through he always held on to the belief that marriage was a prerequisite for sex and all who could not resist such animalistic urges were slaves to their desires and deserved every word of the repercussions. And in this way he always thought himself superior to his peers for being able to control and subdue his temptations, to the point where no one would bat an eyelash if told that he simply did not experience sexual attraction.

But Tenten had been his undoing. She awoke the lust he’d suppressed for so long in just under an hour and now those lewd thoughts were spreading all over his brain like a rampant epidemic. This had never been a problem before. He never needed to solve it.

Because Neji had never touched himself. Not once in his life. And damned be he if he started tonight.

It was the ultimate act of shamefulness—of shame _less_ ness _._ It was so pathetic and desperate and utterly beneath him, and Neji had pride. A lot of it. And even if Tenten had driven him to the point where all that pent-up, held back frustration over the years was finally wearing him down he would never, ever, resort to masturbation. No primal stirrings within him couldn’t be resisted with a thorough meditation session and a cold, cold shower.

He sat up in his bed and folded his legs into each other, placing intertwined hands in his lap, back straightened, eyes closed. Meditation, of course, his most reliable decompressor and weapon against unease. That was the answer.

Seconds of silence ensued and soon he was hyperaware of everything inside him, the contracting of his diaphragm, lungs expanding with the intake of air, oxygen passing through his capillaries and feeding the red blood cells in his veins. His chakra hummed like the sound of the Earth turning and somewhere in the world there was a wave rocking with the ocean’s will, a slow rumbling crash into the shore and then he let it all wash away as with the air emptied from his rib cage. There was nothing to think, see, or feel in that moment except his body and its functions.

… And, of course, that included the loathsome offender taunting him in his boxers.

Nonetheless, Neji fought it. He blocked it out, pretended that he was perfectly at peace and in control of himself, but it was a great deplorable thing that could not be reasoned with. As far a distance he purged those indecent thoughts away they came hurtling back subliminally and stiffening him, all efforts in vain and ultimately useless.

What must he do to appease that insufferable miscreant?

He knew, of course. He wasn’t an idiot. The solution was obviously to appease _himself_.

But even if he had finally surrendered himself to the urge, satisfying it wasn’t possible. He lived surrounded by shinobi with the ability to _see through walls_. Even if there was a strict rule prohibiting its usage within the compound, you could never truly know when someone was watching. Getting caught would be the death of him.

It wasn’t that it hurt—it almost felt… well, if he were to describe it to someone (not that he would dare) he might say that it was an entirely physiological phenomenon; there was no physical pain, nothing at all to be felt except the heat of it exerting a rigid pressure on his abdomen. Sometimes his legs would move a certain way and it would brush up against his boxers and felt… nice, but other than that it was just… _there_ , and it was distracting and it couldn’t be ignored.

The problem was not being able to do anything about it. An erection was like a race, alert and adrenaline-ready to run a mile, except that the bullet was never shot and the runner was forced to stand there at the starting point for hours on end. And he was so, so anxious to reach the finish line but the official wouldn’t give the damn signal—

All thoughts halted.

His eyes shot open.

Somehow, during his distressed deliberations, an unconscious hand had driven itself past his waistband and brushed his…

Neji yanked it away, cursing himself. Cursing the gods. Was this man? Was he to destined to succumb to his lust and _degrade_ himself like that? Sacrifice his dignity? Sully his sanctity? Was there really no other way?

Eyelids fell shut. So be it. He would make this as quick as possible.

The ghost of a hand wandered a wary path from his stomach to his pelvis, and he remembered how Tenten had done the same just before stopping per his request. He was almost— _almost_ —regretful for not letting her continue, for her touch had been far more natural than his uncertain one.

Neji hesitated; he wasn’t… quite… sure how it worked. Those god awful pamphlets from that health class had made it simple enough in illustration. A firm grip and however many “tugs” as necessary and then the deed was over and done with. It shouldn’t take a genius to figure it out.

A deep breath… and then he grabbed it.

Likely not the best course of action. His reaction was immediate, sharply sucking in air through his teeth and biting down on his lower lip. Such a simple step and he was responding to it so readily, oversensitive and expectant.

Seconds later after the initial shock and he was stroking it up and down, hardly applying any pressure, working out how this was to be done. It only made him harder, hotter, but that motion alone was gratifying and he had to remind himself that he was supposed to get it over with, not enjoy it.

Neji made his grip more tight, perhaps the strength one would use to hold a tennis racket, and then he tightened it a little bit more after that. Then his arm moved and he gave it a tentative pump—evoking another gasp—and repeated it, over and over until he fell into a speed that worked for him on the slower side of fast. Teeth dug into his lip even more, pounding and pounding as pleasure made itself known and his head thudded backwards, eyes steeled shut.

_(Her lips leave butterfly trails along his bare neck as her hands amble to dangerous zones, whispering something warmly on his skin, the tips of her fingers grazing the shaft…)_

Barely conscious of his purpose or surroundings anymore, Neji lost himself in his own touch and dazedly slowed the pace, breathing heavier. The world was forgotten in all his drunken enrapturement, drowning in the heavenly sensations of each languid, heated stroke.

 _(She taunts him, abandoning his neck to reach for lower places. Sensuous sweet caresses encourage his hips to buck to her lead and she kisses everywhere but_ there, _and its driving him mad…)_

He was sweating now, the pace quicked, and a strange, drawn-out whining noise escaped his throat. His eyebrows furrowed as it throbbed in his fist, pulsing with the steady build-up of pleasure in his abdomen.

 _(The pleasure is blinding. She works him like an expert, taking both curled fists to swallow his cock within the confines of her nimble fingers and it’s killing him, the way she speeds up and slows down, wringing him out—in—like a wet, dripping towel—_ )

Red stained his flushed cheeks and he panted, pounding even harder, turning his head onto his pillow and biting into it as his lips had failed to hold back the grunts and soft groans of his throat. He remembered the feel of her graceful sinuous tongue and nothing else matters, shivering, reveling in the bursts of heat and the sparks that flared up his spine, all over his body, giving in—already received by rapture and the thrill of upcoming release...

_(It quickens, she is relentless in her torture and she circles the tip like its nothing but it does everything for him and then she flicks her tongue—)_

It was too much, too much, too much, it felt too good and he was getting rapidly approaching that one desired bright white land— _fuck_ , his jaw clenched and meager wetness leaked from the head on his slick pumping fist. His thumb swiped over the sensitive tip and then a chorus of fervent moans droned from his lips only to be muffled by his pillow— _fuck, gods, fuck_ —he was on the height of something amazing, began to feel the coveted tugs into another world—

_(Tenten. Everything is Tenten, the shallow dip of her collarbone and her amused smirk and the smoothness of her legs, softness of her arms, her pert, heaving chest and the divine, hellish motions of her hands and fingers, controlling his sex, his woman, his heavenly escort to completion...)_

Everything was black and then it went white. His spine curved as an arched bridge into that world where the Earth halted on its axis and white noise surrounded him and he plummeted off into oblivion, the spread _sinful_ of wet, staggering ecstasy jerking all over his palms. It came out in stuttering long spurts, his hips jutting into his slick hand, coupled indivisibly with a harsh ragged moan and the twitching of his cock and the clutches of his covers by his free, writhing fingers. Savage groans dissolve with the pleasure and draw his lips from deformed variations of the letter “O” to a taut, pressed line, his face scrunched and grieved like a man in pain.

He let his climax wash away his body and guide the venture into blissful nothingness. The best (the worst) of it was beginning to fade and the slow, contended tides of post-orgasmic sleepiness ensued. Uneven breathless pants soothed to relaxed puffs of hot air. His grip on his bedspread lessened and his eyelids parted leisurely, confused. Those lavender eyes moved from the left to the right, taking in the darkened white walls around him in uncertainty because he seemed to be facing temporary amnesia. All he remembered was Tenten and the pleasantness that tingled his lower half. He failed to recall his own name or his location. Where was he? What was going on? What had just happened?

Sluggishness and sleepiness blurred his vision. He groaned and moved to comb his fingers through his hair until he stopped suddenly and noticed something wet on his hand.

The sight shocked him out of his reverie in horror. It all came flooding back and hit him like a freight train to his gut—Tenten—kissing—the indecency of—oh _gods_ , no—the climax—his—his—

He didn’t let his shock derail him anymore as he all but jolted out of his bed and sprinted the fastest a ninja could run to his bathroom, spinning the sink’s knob as quickly as possible and knocking over a glass in the process. Hot, scorching hot water ran over his palm and Neji held the entire length of his arm far away from the rest of his body, wanting nothing to do with the dripping mass of sin and shame he called his right hand. He refused to acknowledge it, refused to believe that the great prodigy of the Hyuuga Clan had just done something so demeaning, so humiliating, so animalistic, so—

“Um… N—Neji-niisan? Are you—um… are you alright?”

Fuck. _Fuck._ Curse the gods. Curse every spirit and kage and the great holy mother of chakra—

“I heard some, um, there were some strange sounds coming from your room a few minutes ago, a—and then there was a crash, so I was wondering…”

Dear _lord_. Had he been so loud that Hinata could have heard him from across the hall?

Never was Neji Hyuuga so mortified. Pink heated his cheeks and it was with award-worthy lucid composure and brevity preceded by a deep breath that he assured, “Nothing is wrong, Hinata-sama. Go back to sleep.”

“Ah, um, okay…” Her soft voice was unsure, but compliant. “Good night, niisan...”

“Good night.”

A handful of seconds that felt like forever passed, and then the sound of her bedroom door closing shut secured him. The tension of a layered knot came undone, his rapid heartbeat settling down. Running water was all that remained in the silence that followed.

Minutes later the shower was on and his stripped clothing lay discarded in the hamper (though there was _one_ article for which he would die first before allowing anyone but himself to wash). The water was cold as the dial would accept, and its freezing sharp droplets pummeled his rigid body from the showerhead as the embarrassment declined, but the regret was forever tattooed in his head. In that self-reflecting moment, Neji was certain of one thing.

He, most definitely...

… had gotten carried away.

 


	3. Explaining Their Relationship to Others

  **#3. Explaining Their Relationship to Others (who didn’t know)**

* * *

 

Shame.

A ruthless, persistent emotion dedicated to making a man feel like the dirtiest scum on the face of the Earth.

He’d witnessed it bring men to their knees, his uncle bowing on the floor to him on that day four years ago, groveling, begging him for forgiveness. He’d seen it in Naruto’s shattered eyes when he had failed to return the Uchiha to the village despite the costly sacrifices made by his fellow ninja just for that purpose. He, too, was a victim, having spent the greater half of his teens regaining the trust of his (now, most treasured) cousin for his immaturity at the exams back then. Such failures on his behalf were things that he preferred to not think about too often. But this tactic… was not proving as successful he’d like it to be on the morning afterwards.

Last night had been one of the most peaceful trances of sleep he ever slumbered. There had been no dreams, no nightmares, no lingering lethargy and he woke up feeling… content. More content than ever precedented. Neji couldn’t remember ever awaking so refreshed, so prepared to take on the day and all its challenges.

But… how?

Then he remembered.

Embarrassment creeped back into his skull and burned his cheeks red. He facepalmed harshly, eyebrows pinched, internally berating himself. Losses of restraint could not be tolerated. Shame on him for such a colossal failure to resist his male urges. If he was incapable of withholding against this newfound lust, then how could he trust himself around Tenten? They simply were _not_ ready for sex, and if something as precious as her virginity was lost prematurely on a spur-of-the-moment tryst then it wouldn’t mean anything.

Since when had the idea of… of doing _that_ with Tenten become so appealing, anyway? It hadn’t ever crossed his mind even once. To say “Tenten” and “sex” in the same breath might make him suffocate. Together or not, he simply didn't think it possible to see her in that way—because he’d known her since she was the twelve year-old girl in the pretty pink top with the chubby bright cheeks.

But then… last night she had shown him a wholly new side of her, and it was with some added guilt he acknowledged that he’d rejected that side of her in the least fashionable of ways.

Neji found himself wondering just how often she thought about him… amorously. Couldn’t she understand that it was too early for that sort of thing? Perhaps some blame belonged to him for not making that clear beforehand at some point. Maybe then some embarrassment would have been spared on both their parts.

But it wasn’t as if sex was some exquisite, wonderful thing. All men seemed to strive for it, and that had struck him as so _weird_ up until now.

That was the danger. He had forgotten about how disgusting it was as soon as he delved into it even slightly. In actuality, propriety and prudishness be welcomed, the act of sex really was quite gross. There were a lot of unsavory fluids involved and, honestly, those illustrations of the female genitalia from _Sex-ed with Anko-sensei_ were anything if not queer and unappealing.

To be fair, penises were also bizarre in their own right, and to say that they were inconvenient would be a tragic understatement. It would react to the randomest things and spring up at full length _without_ his consent for _no reason at all_ and refuse to back down for hours. As a person who preferred to be in complete control of his thoughts and actions of all times (a reason why he swore to never touch alcohol), these things were the worst kind of failure. Just as a body had its functions it was also prone to _mal_ functions—and that was what he saw them as. Mere mistakes, exceedingly troublesome bodily miscalculations from his pubescent years (and that was one of the reasons he’d adopted so drastic a change of attire age 14, a looser ensemble much better suited to concealing those nuisances). He was well aware, of course, that random erections and puberty were indivisible, but having high expectations for himself made succumbing to the frivolous whims of his male appendage especially upsetting.

Now, however, years later, the nature of his problem had shifted slightly. Because they weren’t “random” at all.

His fingers tousled his inky loose bangs in resentment. Masturbation was one thing, but committing such sin and using _Tenten_ as material was an entirely separate matter—that was something to despise himself for. Fleetingly, he wondered if any other men had ever used her likeness in the same way he had and then banished the thought as quickly as it came because it only made him angry.

Neji was someone who actually cared about her. So much more than any depraved man imagining what lie beneath her baggy layers of clothing could. How could he have failed to consider Tenten’s feelings? She was so much more than a body to compensate for his inability to control himself. It was disrespectful. It was the _exact_ kind of degradation of women that she hated. He believed that anything of that nature should be done with purpose between two consenting individuals at the proper time and place and he had yet to supply _any_ of those things. The guilt was irreparable—and there was only one thing he could do.

He had to tell her.

* * *

On not one occasion could Neji recall ever experiencing the debilitating dread he felt showing his face at training that morning. The instant Tenten came into view the second he stuttered on his resolve and questioned his choice, doubting himself. Confessing for his crimes, which seemed a very appropriate term to him, had sounded like the best way to alleviate the shame he felt, but in its execution lay the real danger and uncertainty. What would he say? How would she react? She was a reasonable, practical person and unlike any of the other females in their age group; she distributed her emotions equally at impeccable intervals and was the perfect mix of calm, intelligence, expressiveness, and liveliness, never irrational or overdramatic. He needed that in a mate, because he couldn't possibly tolerate a girl who was too sweet or too meek or too obnoxious or anything else but exactly the way she was.

For a moment, as he approached Team Gai’s training grounds, he forgot about his worries and was enrapt in appreciation for Tenten. What would he be without her? His most trusted comrade? The mediator? His only sanity on a team of morons? It was so strange to call her his girlfriend; they were “together”, but that term just seemed too superficial and immature to describe what they had. Nearly two months, just two months had their “relationship” spanned so far and it felt somewhat ridiculous that that was all they had to speak for despite being together for over five long years. Nobody in his life compared to that bond. No one came even close.

It was then Neji decided that he would never do Tenten wrong again. She was too important. She was irreplaceable. Any obstacles in their path were insignificant, and nothing like lecherous thoughts or forbidden temptations would stall him from doing right by her.

He arrived at the grounds and was greeted by a jubilant Lee, whom he acknowledged obligatorily as he did every morning. His sights were really set on Tenten, though, who was casually practicing her aim on a very victim-like tree. Obviously _now_ was not the appropriate time to tell her, not with Lee so near. It would have to be later, after training, probably, where they could have some privacy.

“Tenten,” Neji called as he approached her from behind. Observant as he was, he saw her shoulders jump and the kunai she threw skeered a centimeter off its desired path. She froze like that for the whole of two seconds until she unsealed another weapon and hurled it up at a branch, which plundered to the ground and crashed.

“Good morning, Neji!” She beamed in an oddly cheerful voice, not turning around to face him. His eyebrow raised. Tenten always greeted him with a wide smile, and she usually just said “‘Morning. You ready?” and he would nod in response.

He waited for her to say more. She didn’t.

So he offered, “Do you want to spar?”

“Ah, no—” Tenten hastened, drawing one kunai after the other, speaking far too fast to be normal, “we shouldn’t, because Gai-sensei should be getting here any minute and I think we have a mission today—so we shouldn’t.”

Her reasoning made sense, but he didn’t want to leave her be just yet. She seemed very intent on not making conversation (and as the talkative one, that was her choice of role in the relationship), though, and pushing Tenten with weapons in her hand was a very dangerous risk. Instead, Neji seated himself in front of a tree nearest to the one she practiced on and meditated.

Birds rustled in the leaves and chirped. Lee’s voice boisterously engulfed the vicinity as he counted each push-up ( _“One hundred and eight, one hundred and nine, one hundred and—”_ ), and a _thunk_ accompanied each weapon of hers just as it pierced bare bark. Minutes turned into half an hour, and by that point Tenten was plainly sealing and unsealing a lone shuriken for no reason at all and Lee was kicking at the empty air. They were all thinking the same thing.

Gai-sensei should have been there by now.

“Did he seriously ditch us without saying anything?” Tenten finally wheezed, hips on her shoulders. Lee sprang to attention.

“Do not be silly, Tenten! Gai-sensei would not make us wait for no reason. I am sure he has a good reason for not being here yet!”

“But for _half an hour_? For a sensei who insists on punctuality, he’s not doing a good job of enforcing it!” She clicked her tongue, whirling around to collect her weapons embedded in the tree. “I say we go home already. It isn’t fair to us to keep waiting around.”

“You have no faith, Tenten! Tell her, Neji! Gai-sensei will be here soon, yes?”

Both pairs of eyes were on him, he could feel them. Neji sighed, opening his own.

“We will wait five minutes. If he isn’t here by then, it’s his own fault that we’ll be gone.”

Tenten sighed, boredom carved into her features. If he knew one thing about her, it was that she hated being bored—not that Tenten got bored easily, but when she did, it was obvious that she didn’t know what to do with herself. Her shoulder rolled, and with a swing of her arm she unleashed a league of shuriken into the sky and they landed in a circle surrounding her. A basic, incomprehensible theatric of hers.

But upon closer examination, he noticed that it wasn’t as precise as it usually was. One of them was very lopsided, and the arrangement was so off it resembled a very confused oval.

“Your aim is off, Tenten.”

Blunt or tactless as his tone may be (though he didn’t mean it as an insult), his comment came with warranted concern.  The absence of anything but perfection in Tenten’s accuracy was the clearest sign of something being wrong with her, and all signs pointed to it being related to the events of last night.

“Is it—I didn’t notice. Thanks!”

Now there was no question, because he’d just insulted something Tenten was very prideful about and she responded as if it were praise. That, and she was very adamant on not looking at him directly.

Being discreet or hiding her feelings was not one of her talents. She once vocalized a complaint of indignation at never being assigned any espionage missions because Gai and Lee were too obnoxious to handle one, but he couldn’t imagine that she would fare all too well undercover either. She still broke out laughing at the word “pudding”, for gods’ sake.

Neji rose, and appeared at her side, lowering his voice. “If this is about yesterday, Tenten, I—”

“Neji, I get it. We talked already, remember?” Finally she turned to him, but her eyes refused to make direct contact with his. The fakest of smiles captured her lips. “I just… cut my palm the other day, and it stings, so my throw is off. And I’m still sleepy. That’s all.”

He didn’t believe a word. “Then let me see it.”

“I don’t want to.”

“You’re lying.”

“Would you just let me—”

In no less than a second they darted their heads forward and jumped out of the way just as a kunai zipped past them and lodged itself in a tree. Defensive-mode kicked in for all three teammates and they readied themselves for any attacks, his byakugan activated, a scroll in Tenten’s hand. He scanned the perimeter for enemy chakra signatures and found none to count for, but that didn’t stop them from keeping still for a good ten seconds longer.

Adrenaline subsided and his heartbeat slowed down. Neji lowered his arms.

Lee asked, “Did you see anything, Neji?”

“No. Whoever threw it, he’s gone now.”

“It came from your left,” Tenten added. “That means whoever did it was inside the village.”

“Perhaps it was someone’s idea of a joke!”

He shook his head, “Not at that speed. If we weren’t trained, that could’ve killed us.”

“Then... who?”

“I don’t know, Lee.”

Silence consumed them. He and Tenten snuck glances at each other and locked eyes. So long as danger existed, personal matters were irrelevant. That was the message they exchanged.

“Look, there’s something attached to the kunai!”

Tenten pointed and he saw the little white tag dangling from the handle with a wire. With his trained byakugan he examined the rectangular paper, and in it there was a faint amount of chakra concentrated at the center. Black lines decorated the interior. His eyes widened.  

“I think it is a message! I shall read it, then!”

“Lee, _don’t!_ It’s—”

The rest of his sentence was lost in the black and red explosion that blew Lee back ten feet into the forest as congested smoke swarmed them and Tenten’s hacked coughs filtered in his ears. Neji found her kneeling, doubled-over form despite the thick fog and rushed to her side, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. He hooked his other one underneath her knees and sprung out of the top of the smoke. Hovering in the air, he noticed a figure clothed in black sprinting away from the scene, and in the assailant’s arms was an unconscious boy in dark green tights.

“Damn it, he’s got Lee.” Neji frowned, connecting his feet to a branch with chakra. The girl in his arms groaned laboriously as she came to and lifted herself out of his hold. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah—” She stumbled slightly and leaned against the trunk. “Yeah, I’m fine. What happened?”

“The attacker has made off with Lee, and he is retreating as we speak.”

“Damn,” she swore. “Should we report this to someone? Tsunade-sama?”

“There’s no time. We have to follow him now before he’s out of sight.”

She nodded, her voice severe. “Right. Let’s go.”

They took off.

* * *

He didn’t even find it strange how he and Tenten halted what might’ve been the bloomings of a dispute—he could count on _one hand_ the number of times they’ve argued over anything, because they were usually so in-sync with one another—and cut to action as soon as the situation demanded it. That was another thing he liked about her; she’d had her priorities straight since she was a genin, to become a better ninja. Whatever was on her mind, it could wait until Lee was safe.

“Neji, what do you see? Is he okay?”

He focused his eyes on the man they pursued and zeroed in on their teammate. Lee’s limbs hung loosely in the arms of his captor and he offered no resistance against it. From the looks of things, he was breathing and alive, but Neji could tell that he wouldn’t be waking up any time soon.

“He’s fine,” He announced, hearing her sigh of relief. “But from being that close to the explosion, a concussion isn’t unlikely. We must retrieve him as soon as possible.”

“That idiot!” Tenten exclaimed. “I’m gonna teach him a lesson for being so stupid once we get to him!”

He smirked. Something like a fierce beating would be the last thing Lee would need if he really did have a concussion, but _he_ certainly wouldn’t be the one to interfere with her choice of discipline.

They maintained a distance of about twenty feet from the attacker and swiftly leapt from branch to branch. The chase had spanned over three minutes with no developments except the growing vexation on Tenten’s part. “Neji, we’ve been at this for forever! I can take him down quick in one shot if I get a tiny bit closer.”

“Be patient,” he assured. “The enemy could slit his throat faster than any weapon you could throw. Don’t risk it.”

“Argh… But I really think I could do it!”

In his graceful stride he turned his head and met her gaze that focused ahead. The feathered shadows of looming leaves curled around her forehead like a crown. She looked like she was flying, her long airy sleeves rippling as the wind soared divinely beneath the fabric. There was a gleam in her eyes whenever the opportunity to use her weapons arose and this time it was brimmed with determination and fortitude. He softened.

Neji had nothing but confidence in her abilities—more than anyone he had gotten to witness the truth behind her acclaimed title as the mistress of weapons that steeled the Leaf Village. It was that uncanny accuracy that had compensated for his blind spot a hundred times over in his ninja career and he never doubted it to keep him secure. No one else, no other randomly assigned kunoichi to their genin squad could have accomplished the things she had.

If Tenten so set her mind to it, believed that she was capable, then there was no reason for him to not think the same.

“Take to the far east and slowly close in from the side. Be discreet.” Her eyes brightened as he spoke, excitement visibly hushed by her lips. “I will keep him distracted and then you can make your shot from the skies. Attach a chakra string to it just in case and aim for the spine.”

She nodded with a smile, “I’m on it.”

The girl leapt to the left and disappeared into the trees.

Neji followed suit with the plan and maintained the same pace and distance they’d kept thus far. The enemy seemed to have not yet realized that one of his pursuers had disappeared, and that was fortunate. It all depended on Tenten’s speed and aim, to kill him before he realized the kunai had been thrown.

With not even a sound to accompany her as she sprung from the treetops Tenten flipped and hovered in the sky, twirling a kunai that shone betwixt her rolling fingers. The chakra wire pulsed electric blue and fluttered behind the arm that raised backwards and angled it perfectly, and the wind whistled with the blade as it flew from her hand at lightning speed to pierce her target. Her form was perfect.

 _She is perfect,_ he thought, admiring her gracefulness.

And it was her perfection that had nearly cost the wrong person their life, because he had been stupidly distracted and hadn’t noticed the girl that suddenly jumped in the kunai’s path with a raised fist. He shouted for her to fall back.

“Tenten, withdraw!”

“Huh? Oh, sh—”

“ _SHANNARO!_ ”

_CRASH._

The sheer force of Sakura’s punch actually blew him backwards. Tenten fell from the heavens and performed a series of flips just so that she’d land on her feet. Dust and debris bursted from the newly born gaping crater that sunk several yards into the ground and he coughed, shielding himself from himself from the blunt of her wrath.

As the fog dissolved, Neji found that three new characters had made an appearance on the perimeter. Sakura, the kunoichi he remembered from Naruto’s team, an unfamiliar boy with white skin and black hair who landed next to her, and another enemy ninja—one that sprinted ahead and escaped with his accomplice.

Haruno whirled around, adjusting her glove, and nodded at her silent companion. Tenten called her name and waved, “Sakura!”

Honest surprise graced her features as she ran over to them, the other boy closely following. “Tenten! Neji! What are you guys doing all the way out here?”

“It’s Lee. He’s been kidnapped by the guy you attacked just now!”

Sakura gasped. She looked to the unnamed shinobi behind her for a long breathless second and then returned. Her eyes darkened.

“I think we might be having the same problem.”

* * *

“So you’re saying that Naruto fell for the _same_ stupid trick?”

Neji hadn’t even realized that Tenten and Sakura were friends. To him, calling the latter kunoichi an acquaintance would be a label too generous for the both of them. He hardly associated with anyone outside of Team Gai and his clan and assumed the same of Tenten, though he now understood that that was unlikely. She was, after all, the _least_ socially stunted member of the team; it only made sense that she’d extend some length of friendliness to other ninja of their generation. He just wondered when the development arose, because he’d never seen her interact amicably with anyone that wasn’t Gai, Lee, or himself on a regular basis. Just how wide was her circle of friends?

“Yeah. I’m gonna make him pay for that one,” she scowled. “Tenten, how long has Lee been unconscious?”

“About ten minutes or so. You’d think that such a hard-headed guy would have woken up by now!”

“Actually… I think you’re right. I’ve seen Naruto and Lee get back up immediately from things way worse than explosions.”

“Perhaps there was poison laced in with the tag, Sakura-san?”

Conversation halted at the addition of her teammate, whom she had introduced as “Sai”, one of two new members to Team 7 (news which provoked a raised eyebrow—the Uchiha was rogue and gone, but why replace the presumed Kakashi?). His voice was just… odd. The timing of his nuances were off, he placed emphasis on the wrong words, the cadences wavered worse than a ship at unsafe sea. Sakura seemed uncomfortable. Tenten said nothing. It was awkward.

“Unlikely,” Neji finally said, though it was more of a statement to the group than a response to Sai. “I would have noticed Lee’s chakra levels diminishing had he been poisoned.”

Tenten followed, “Then why are they both still knocked out?”

“No idea. I think we just have to keep following them, as much as I’d hate to play right into their plans.”

Tension festered in the air above them as Sakura’s words settled in. They soared up and over the branches in prolonged pursuit of the kidnappers. Another five minutes of chase did they give, and the restlessness wore on his nerves like corroded sediment. There was no reason he could see why Lee of all people, a relatively unknown ninja outside the village, would be a prize for enemy nin along with Naruto. Neji pondered this, and though he arrived at a handful of possibilities the most simple reasoning anchored in one idea—that they were bait.

And then it all clicked.

He moved a ways closer to his teammate and lowered his voice for only her counsel.

“Tenten.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think it’s strange that it was Lee who was taken, after Gai failed to make an appearance?”

She paused in thought. “... Maybe. Why? You think those things are related to each other?”

“I believe so. It’s odd that the enemy hasn’t made any attacks during the chase. That could only mean that they’re leading us somewhere.”

“That makes sense. We’ve been doing exactly what they want for the past twenty minutes!”

“Yes. Now, do you see what direction we’re headed in?”

“The end of the forest or Mito’s Lake, I think.”

“And what day is it?”

The realization hit her harder than an anvil could have if it was dropped on her head. She facepalmed and cursed.

“I’m killing them, Neji. I’m going to _kill_ them.”

* * *

Somewhere along the course of the day, Neji had gotten lost.

In the company of a little under twenty people had his energy run dry and depleted. Socializing with a large group, putting in actual effort to casually speak with anyone that wasn’t Tenten or Hinata made him ache to just go home and meditate or train privately on the Hyuuga grounds. At least there, _everyone_ was introverted and few bothered with conversation at all.

It seemed that the bubbliness and energy of the group had been sufficiently drained on the timely schedule of the setting sun, because when afternoon breathed into evening and the air cooled and the sky lessened its intensity, the Konoha ninja had simmered down at the theater of a campfire. Everyone except he and Shino leisured with roasting marshmallows atop thick makeship log chairs. Tenten sat on his right, Naruto his left, and the rest generally circulated near their teams as the sensei had retired early to the village.

Eventually all chatter faded and the background noise became more pronounced in their silence. Crickets beeped and buzzed. The fire highlighted sleepy smiles and left the world behind them in eager swarming black. Akamaru barked to be fed another marshmallow. Hinata gasped as her tongue burned for biting into hers too hot before it could cool down. Unusual pleasantness and easiness blanketed them.

“I can’t believe I forgot that it was Chuunin Appreciation Day.” Tenten sighed, drawing attention to her aisle.

Sakura chuckled, “Don’t beat yourself up, Tenten. We _all_ did.”

“Not me!” Naruto beamed.

“Nor did I!” Cheered Lee.

Tenten scowled. “That’s because you morons _tricked_ us into thinking you were kidnapped!”

“Indeed we did! It was all an elaborate plot that Gai-sensei put together with the help of Captain Yamato!”

“And you guys all fell for it! Even you, Neji!” The blonde broke out into boisterous laughter and Lee joined in, filling the camp with eyerolls and annoyed groans.

“Grow up, Naruto. Neji figured out your plan before we even got here.”

Naruto stuck out his tongue. Tenten did the same.

He took a little bit of silent pride in her appraisal. Even since they were kids, Tenten had taken no reticence in boasting of his strength or intelligence or prowess as a ninja to other people like it were nothing. It was probable that, he wagered with a slight smile, he would _never_ run out of reasons to like her. She was a boundless chest of invaluable treasures yet to be discovered. Neji wondered if he’d ever be able to appreciate them all.

Ino had taken it upon herself to recount the tale of how her and Hinata’s team had gotten caught up in the ploy of their own senseis for Chuunin Appreciation Day.

“Asuma-sensei tried to keep it a secret, but he couldn’t stop snickering with Kurenai-sensei. He really thought we were fooled!”

Sakura asked with a giggle, “Aren’t those two dating now?”

“If they are, they’re not gonna say so! Technically, jounin sensei aren’t allowed to date each other. It’s not like it’s enforced by Tsunade-sama, though.”

At this point, most of the twelve had zoned out of the conversation. The relationships amongst their teachers wasn’t especially interesting to Neji either, so he watched Tenten sleepily create shadow puppets for them in the blanket of the looming fire. She formed something like a dog and a rabbit and told an unclear story where they apparently attempted to kill each other, became friends, and then the rabbit betrayed the dog by… eating it or sitting on top of it or something. She didn’t illustrate it well, but it was entertaining nonetheless.

Soon then time came where a consensus was reached to spend the night in the forest and sleep. Most carried sleeping bags or blankets regularly, and for those who didn’t (Lee, Naruto) Tenten was able to supply spares.

The girls moved their camp to the opposite side of the little lake with promised death threats should any of the boys try to sneak over. Tenten wished he and Lee goodnight (without the quick hug or kiss she often gave him before parting due to others being around), and they all settled into their beds.

Even though his intentions had honestly been to retire, neither the girls nor the boys shut down after separating. He could hear faint conversation from their end, gossiping, probably, and a few of the boys chattered on. Their loud, whining voices kept him from sleeping.

“Man, I thought they’d never stop talking about relationships and all that junk!” He moaned, his cheeks held in his palms. “Why do those girls even bother talking about boys? I’m the real stud here!”

“Get real,” Kiba taunted. “What girl would wanna date your ugly mug?”

“Lots of ‘em! And I’m way cooler and more good-looking than _you_ , Kiba!”

He growled, “You wanna say that again, punk?”

“Gentlemen, please!” Lee intervened. “It is common knowledge that no shinobi is more handsome than the Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha, Rock Lee!”

Blank stares decorated Lee’s boasting form. A withering exchange was shared between the latter two boys.

Kiba resisted and began stroking Akamaru’s back. He tossed a raw marshmallow into his mouth and rolled his eyes. “No _way_ am I uglier than this guy. Girls are all over me like bees to honey. Tell ‘em, Shino.”

“Bees are not attracted to honey, Kiba. A better comparison would be bees to _pollen_ , because they actively seek it out from the stamen of regular flora and carry it to separate pistils which they use to—”

“Blah blah blah, I get it. Just answer the question, will ya?”

“In actuality, you did not ask me a question”—Kiba interrupted him with a groan—“but the logic behind your argument is fundamentally flawed. Why? Because physical appearance is not the only trait that females consider when choosing a mate.”

Naruto snorted. “Oh, yeah? Then what else is so important, Professor Know-It-All Shino?”

“I cannot answer that, Naruto. There are too many factors to be named. But intelligence, for example, is important to many females. This would be an issue for all three of you.”

“How come?”

“Because you are not very smart.”

Raucous outburst exploded from the three that brought insistent “shush”ing from the girls’ camp and him wishing that he could have stayed with Tenten instead of those three morons. Neji pressed his head further into the cushion of his sleeping bag and tried to tune them out.

“That can’t be true! Neji is plenty smart and he doesn’t have a girlfriend!”

“Yeah! Explain that, girl expert.”

“Ah, that is where you are wrong, Naruto-kun, Kiba-kun, because Neji _does_ indeed have a girlfriend!”

It was perhaps three seconds of pause after Lee’s statement before the shouts ensued.

“ _WHAT?”_

“ _FOR REAL?”_

“NO WAY!”

“ _WHO?_ ”

“Is it not obvious?”

“Lee,” Neji warned, “be _quiet_ —”

“It was our dear Tenten who has stolen the heart of my youthful rival!”

Somehow he got the impression that Lee’s answer was very anticlimactic, because the lack of surprise and spurr of boredom that befell both Naruto and Kiba’s faces indicated a prior hope for a more interesting answer.

“Well, I guess that makes sense,” said Naruto with a frown.

“If any girl were to date that bag of ice, it’d probably be her.” Kiba concluded.

“I was also not surprised when you informed Gai-sensei and I of your development, Neji!”

These lines marked the unavoidable rope that finally dragged him into the conversation, because all eyes (including the curiously silent Akimichi and Sai) were on him as if expecting some sort of input.

“Who knew this guy was such a lady’s man, yeah?” With a strangely prideful grin Naruto patted Neji’s exposed shoulder a couple times, and he recoiled. “I’m kinda proud of you, Neji! When we first met, I never would’ve thought you’d manage to get yourself a girlfriend!”

He did, in fact, acknowledge that he never would have gotten together with Tenten if not for Naruto’s intervention that time several years ago. For that, he simply batted the boy’s hand away without glaring on top of it.

“How long have you guys even dated?”

“Was it you or Tenten that professed your undying love and affection first?”

“Have you both had sex yet?”

“Is she hotter with her hair down?”

“Do you guys—wait, _WHAT?_ ”

All heads slowly turned in disbelief on Sai, who’s innocent plain smile met the gaping dropped jaws of his company. Shikamaru snorted. Lee seemed confused. The rest shared varied expressions of shock and embarrassment.

Before Neji could even begin to fathom a coherent response, Kiba added, “Well, have you?”

He remembered a period when the Inuzuka had feared him as “ _Hinata’s evil cousin_ ” and felt himself missing those times, because his insolence was making it more and more likely that he’d get _jyuuken’d_ right into the lake.

The honest answer was no, he and Tenten had not slept together, that last night was the first time they’d done anything more than chaste kissing, but such facts were not information privy to an audience or anyone except those involved. As of right now, the sexual aspect of their relationship was mutually uncertain and neither knew exactly where they stood or what the future held, but Neji’s intent was to push anything like that as far away as possible. Just thinking about it brought the guilt and shame back in droves, because he still had yet to confess to the terrible thing he’d done to her or clarify his actions from yesterday.

But he was honestly disgusted that Sai—someone he didn’t even _know_ —and Kiba had the audacity to even ask him about that. What made them think that they were entitled to know anything that private and personal about his life?

“It would do you both well to learn,” Neji finally started, his voice hardened and guarded, “that my relationship with Tenten is not _any_ of your business.”

Surprisingly, Sai actually seemed repentant. “Ah, my apologies, Neji-kun. I was under the impression that such subjects were common amongst social gatherings.”

“That’s ‘cause they _are_. Neji just doesn’t wanna spill anything ‘cause he’s probably one of those guys that’s gonna stay a virgin until he’s married.”

“Kiba-kun, how dare you mock the sanctity of abstaining from sex until marriage!” Lee jumped out of his sleeping bag and grabbed Neji by his shoulders with an iron grip, forcing him into eye contact. His voice was nothing but grave and forceful, his eyes fixated severely into his own. “Neji, my rival, you must promise to me that you will not have sex with Tenten until you are betrothed! You may be on the path to adulthood, but a child is a serious responsibility and raising one would prematurely extinguish her passionate flames of youth! For our dear flower’s sake, you must not impregnate her! Promise!”

The word “sex” out of Lee’s mouth was probably the worst thing Neji had ever heard at any point ever in the course of his seventeen years of existence. He cringed. Of all the things to make sex sound unappealing, _that_ had to be it.

And yet, even though they shared the same sentiments on premarital sex, Neji chose not to promise Lee anything.

  



	4. Blindfolded

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Totally 100% sorry for the delay. I absolutely have no excuse for not doing this sooner, just came down with the worst writer’s block I’ve had in a while. I also decided to do neither discovering boundaries nor holding back just yet, but they’ll be present soon. Happy reading!

**#4. Blind ~~folded~~**

* * *

 

A week and change later brought Konoha to the early declivity of August. One trait distinct to the village was that it adjusted to season changes well and immediately; the first snow always fell in the second week of December. The spring rain showers earned their own mark on the calendar. Widespread decompressing ensued at gradual shift from green to orange-brown in the background come autumn. At this point in time the leaves were not yet ready to descend, but that didn’t stop shopkeepers from breaking out the old rakes and pencil brooms to protect their property from clutter. The seasons were just as efficient and punctual as an analog clock.

The weird thing about this time was that it was the only division of the year when missions were less frequent and dangerous. Spring and summer missions were assigned just about every other day, and in winter there were more trips to far, foreign lands worth four to eight day excursions. Now Team Gai was requested at most twice a week, and perhaps that was because of a lesser need to get things done speedily (that was their specialty, after all. Just as Hinata-sama’s squad embodied the perfect assembly of trackers, his team was one of if not the fastest squad in Konoha). Things died down.

So, Neji had a lot of time to think. 

He didn’t endorse sentimentality or lingering around in the long-ago. There were many things he preferred to let sink into past, fade to the peripheral, not disappear but rarely be conscious of. In his ever-periodic meditation sessions he made himself more aware of the now, of every rift in his chakra and the blankness of his mind. The point of meditation was to be aware, yet numb. Effortlessly objective, like a neglectful god watching Earth as it spins. 

But he was thinking about that night more and more, now. It was almost wistful; whether or not he had a desire to return to that time he did not consider, but it was impossible to keep that memory from resurfacing every now and then. For the sake of saving Tenten from any discomfort or embarrassment Neji had kept his mouth shut, thinking that she was far more mortified than she let on. That wasn’t what he wanted at all; he didn’t want the kind of affair where feelings were kept secret, especially concerning such a significant step (forward? Sideways? The direction was unclear but it was a step regardless) in their relationship. It was troubling that she couldn’t tell him about those things. Still, if she didn’t think it to be a conversation worth pursuing, then he wouldn’t try to provoke her. That seemed to be the right course of action. 

At first, anyway.

Now he knew it to be exactly the wrong direction for them, because the problem with locking away feelings to be suppressed and forgotten was that they were never actually forgotten, and they had very unfortunate ways of barrelling back all at once.

—

.

.

.

.

.

.

—

At this rate, the explosions might put alarm clocks out of business.

Even from the cell of his hospital room Neji could hear Tenten's “experiments” roar like preaching thunder from the training grounds. She’d taken a recent interest—sparked by what, he wouldn’t know—in the art of grand-scale explosives, paper bombs no longer enough to qualify in her arsenal of weapons. Currently she was with Gai and Lee, trying to work a way to incorporate it into formation without hindering them or blowing them into space.

Having come from a rare misranked mission (the client requested C rank when it should've been an A) that had pushed his byakugan to its limit, Neji sat at the edge of the bed, its paper cover crinkling beneath him. A line of gauze was dressed over his eyes like a blindfold. 

Three precise knocks rung at the door. “Hyuuga for eye exam?”

“Yes. Come in.” 

He heard the door open and close, followed by dainty footsteps that came closer and stopped just before him. It was true that other senses became heightened when another was dulled. In an attempt to perceive what his eyes could not, Neji paid closer attention to sound, the cold, smooth surface of the bed, that distinctive smell of chemical sterility unique to only hospitals. 

The examiner spoke again, “Remove the gauze, please.”

He complied. Neji blinked a few times, adjusting to his vision. Everything was blurred, he saw vague shapes and colors with no outline. It had been like this since yesterday.

“How many fingers am I holding up?”

“... I can't tell.” He said. It was all too distorted, he could barely make out her hand. 

The scribbling of a pen to clipboard. There was a taut pause of silence after, so she must have been doing something that he couldn’t hear. Then, she dictated, “Activate the byakugan and try again.” 

Seconds passed. His eyes were closed. Usually, in the heat of battle or at the briefest wisp of danger, Neji could activate the byakugan within seconds using no effort at all, like an involuntary muscle reaction. Without any threats or adrenaline it required more concentration. He focused on his eyes, and…

A striking jolt of pain assaulted the back of his eyes like a ripe dose of pepper spray and he groaned in response. It disappeared as quickly as it came, but the prickling heat radiated still within his eye sockets and a headache thrummed a threatening beat in his skull. Neji cursed. That hadn’t happened before. His condition had worsened.

The doctor hummed, “Hmm… I’ve seen this before, there’s no need to worry. You’ve been overexerting your eyes.” There was more quick scribbling on paper. “You probably depend on the byakugan too much in battle. It’s a common problem with Hyuuga men.”

Why she felt the need to specify men, he didn't know, but the subtle jab at his abilities as a ninja did not go unnoticed. Regardless of her position, Neji didn’t take insults from anybody lightly.  “The byakugan is my birthright,” he objected, folding his arms into each other. “I use it as I see fit, which is not a scale that a non-shinobi can measure.”

Offended or not, she was as unfazed as he could tell. “Well, consider this. What if one day you could no longer use it? Can you honestly say that you’d be just as strong?”

“There’s no use for baseless hypotheticals. I’ll always have the use of my byakugan.”

“I disagree. I came down with a bad fever in my teens and my byakugan stopped functioning completely. Or have you not noticed that I’m blind?”

… He didn’t say anything to that. 

The doctor shuffled about the room, filing, writing, testing things, perhaps, and then finally dismissed him.

“If you can, try to concentrate some chakra to your eyes to keep the blood vessels from swelling. Come back in a week if you still can’t see clearly.”

Neji nodded, and excused himself as he rose from the bed and was guided by a nurse’s aid out of the hospital.

He’d have to ask Hinata if she knew anything about that doctor from his clan, because she’d left him with some food for thought that was begrudgingly worth chewing.

—

.

.

.

.

.

.

—

“Dang, Neji. You really can’t see at all? That sucks. It’ll be hell training and going on missions with Gai-sensei and Lee if you’re not there.”

Naturally, the first person he told about his condition was (Hinata actually, since she’d been waiting for him on the first floor and would also be able to inform Hiashi-sama) Tenten, within the prior of noon. He was in her apartment and it was about 11 AM, Friday.

With the tea boiling in her kitchen, he felt the cushion of the sofa sink with her added weight as she sat down with him. “Well, look on the bright side. The doctor said just a week, but knowing you, you’ll be up again in three or four days.” 

“I hope you’re right.” He agreed with some degree of exhaustion, removing his headband. There was no need to conceal the curse mark anymore, especially not around Tenten. Something about what she said did bother him slightly, so he added, “The doctor didn’t say that I couldn’t train or go on missions, Tenten.”

“Oh. Well… maybe because it was implied?” She laughed, “I mean, you can’t see, Neji. What are you going to do without your eyes?”

Again, he didn’t say anything. 

“Neji?” Tenten’s voice. “You seem distracted. What’s on your mind?”

He looked at her and he didn’t see her. She wasn’t touching him. Her breaths were quiet. The only indication that she was there were her words left floating in the air, yet to be registered, subtle, mousy movements, and the earthly resonation of her chakra. 

Often when she talked, Neji found himself getting distracted by the pure expressiveness of her features. When she was happy, her eyes would smile along with her, and when she was upset, it showed in that distinct underlying pout that she tried to hide sometimes.

Without being able to see Tenten, it was as if he understood her a little less.

“I’m fine.” He uttered, calmly, tightening the blindfold for no reason at all. “You were working with explosives this morning. How did you fare?”

Her voice inflated with instant enthusiasm. “Oh, it was amazing! I really think that I can make it work, and, um… you know, maybe, eventually, get more in the front during our next battles since I could…”

With the progress of her sentence each word began to lose its brightness, the excitement, fading like the sun sinking slowly into a dimming horizon before dark. Everything faltered. 

He hated it when she did that. It was happening more often, recently.

“... Never mind.”

And he hated those words, too.

“What were you going to say, Tenten?”

Subtle movements on the couch. Moving away from him.

“Nothing.” 

Neji frowned. Discomfort curled in his gut, that feeling of malaise, offense, whining skepticism extinguishing his mood when he knew that secrets were being kept from him. Chances were he wouldn’t be getting anything more out of her tonight. He wished that he could see what kind of face she was making.

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The day after promised his troubles no reconcile.

Firstly, Hinata told him that Tenten had dropped by to say she would be gone for a quick mission delivery with Kiba. She wouldn’t be back for another hour or so.

Second, his eyesight had just marginally improved come next morning. At this rate, he really would need to wait a week before full recovery. 

Sighing, Neji found the gauze at his bedside and carried it with him as he rose from his bed. He had wanted to try sparring with Tenten first thing in the morning to test his skills while impaired, like training with leg weights as Lee did, but that’d have to wait for a while. There wasn’t much to do for an hour.

Navigating the room on his own wasn’t difficult. He tried opening his eyes, looking around,  but walking with everything so blurred was more troublesome and disorienting than with the blindfold, so he closed his eyes instead on his way to the shower. 

Twenty minutes later and morning was on its way. Breakfast served, the first meditation of the day completed easily. He’d declined the offer to join Hinata and Hanabi for one of their chakra practices and went to the Hyuuga open grounds on his own, thinking to work on his trigrams technique without his byakugan.

Twenty minutes more into training and Neji found that he could do it quite well from muscle memory alone. If it was sloppy or less precise he wouldn’t know, nor would he be surprised, but the Eight Trigrams 64 Palms didn’t seem to require the byakugan so long as he knew where a person’s chakra points were from memory. The discovery was appeasing—so the doctor didn’t know all that he was capable of.

His sharpened senses instantly picked up on the silently approaching character from the complex. Neji turned his head to find them.

It was here when things got bad.

“Neji…”

That voice. “... Tenten?” 

Tenten had never come this far inside the Hyuuga complex. She had been at the front entrance and seen glimpses inside, but Hyuuga rules prohibited anyone but family and special invited guests from entering, and only main house members could decide that. Hinata must have let her in… it was odd that he had never thought to ask her to grant Tenten permission. It just hadn’t crossed his mind before.

He heard her getting closer. “How much did you tell Kiba?”

Neji just stared—well, not really—at her, waiting for clarification, but when he realized that she expected a response, he simply asked, “What are you talking about?”

“How much,” she paused, voice low and serious, “did you tell Kiba?”

Neji recognized her anger, but as usual, she wouldn’t tell him. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d spoken to the dog boy. “Tenten, I have not—”

“How much did you tell him, and who else have you told?” There was an escalating franticness in her tone like an overflowing dam on the verge of bursting—like her seams might tear, like she was about to spill. “How many people know about it, Neji? Why the hell would you tell him that?”

Indignation began to boil. Of all people, she should know that he and the dog boy were not well-acquainted. He did not consider Kiba as a friend or talk to him about anything, she should know that. So why…

… The last time he had spoken to him was on Chuunin Appreciation Day. When they found out that he and Tenten were together. “... The campfire last week. Is that what you’re talking about?”

It only seemed to make her more distressed, “Oh, God, is that when you told him? With all the other guys around? Neji!”

So that was what she was bothered about. She didn’t want anyone else to know about their relationship.

“...” He paused. “I didn’t realize it was meant to be kept a secret.”

“Are you joking? You’re not supposed to go around sharing that stuff with all your guy friends like it’s something to brag about! Maybe it makes you look cool, but it makes me look like—like—some desperate freak of a girl with no control! It's humiliating!” 

There it was, that same logic.

_ "Well, I guess that makes sense." _ Naruto.

_ "If any girl were to date that bag of ice, it'd probably be her." _ Kiba.

_ "I was also not surprised when you informed Gai-sensei and I of your development, Neji!" _ Lee.

Suddenly he was grateful for the blindfold and grateful that he didn’t have to see her face, that she didn’t have to see his. He wanted nothing to do with Tenten right then. If she had anything more to say, he wasn’t having any of it.

Neji spoke six hollow words, in the coldest voice he’d used for her since when they were first made teammates.

“Leave. You'll wake the entire compound.”

Tenten went quiet.

As did her footsteps as they echoed down the hallway, further and further away.

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—

It had to have been one of the most rigorous self-training sessions Neji had ever forced on himself. Being on Gai’s team, that was much to say.

Now, Neji was no fool, and he was not the kind of whimsical person to let upsets get the better of him. He knew that well, just as he knew that over three hours must have passed between "then" and now, the fact being it had taken that long for the immediate impulsive anger to wither down, for him to come about his senses and think like a proper Hyuuga man, not some capricious common boy. He was also just dimly aware that his hands were trembling, dripping with something warm, like his blood. 

When he could come to register the pain even then it barely hit him. His mind and his body were two separate entities at the moment, belonging to the same medium but still so singular in altitude. He didn't feel the water cold or hot striking his skin as he showered. He didn't feel the wrappings as they dressed over his blood wounds, and he didn't feel a response from within when he asked himself those questions.

Train the soul and the body becomes wiser. Train the body and the soul becomes stronger. A ninja is a construction of both in unfaltering unison, a machine with a human dialog. Such is the mantra of the shinobi.

How pathetic that a Hyuuga be so distorted as this. Neji was done wallowing and done pitying himself, if it had even been that much. Problems exist to be solved.  _ So solve it _ , he thought.

Tenten. Teammate of five years. Comrade. Friend. ... "Girlfriend" (he was still hesitant to use that term—it sounded so immature).

Because of all of this experience with her that he shared, looking back on the argument, it didn't take long to understand that something wasn't right. Considering who Tenten was, it didn't make sense.

_ Ashamed _ of him as her "lover"?  _ Him _ ? Impossible. His name was Neji Hyuuga. The mere breath of it spoken evoked respect for his talent and his clan. Furthermore, he knew that Tenten held his opinion much higher than others, especially higher than the likes of the dog boy. It's logical. It's factual. It's undeniable. Therefore, that old conclusion must have been false. 

Certainties drew him back to that night, and... the way she had looked at him. That dreamy expression, that wholesome and hopeful aura of such bone-chilling warmth and debilitating strength. Pure, genuine love, the once-in-a-lifetime kind of love. Without a shred of doubt. 

And perhaps therefore sex was above sinnery. Intimacy was above sinnery, if it was between two people like that. Maybe that's how she had seen it, and why she had been so... aggressive.

... That, he still struggled to conceptualize. The dirtiness of it all… it wasn’t in his nature. There’s no broaching moonlight to the afternoon and expecting it to embrace the sun. She’d have to understand that. Just as he’ll have to understand her innate passions.

But then a thought struck the dark. He cursed. Of course.  _ Of course. _

Neji removed the bindings over his eyes and prepared himself to leave the compound.

Somehow, if just by a few degrees, his vision was a bit clearer.

 

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So clear, in fact, that he could escort himself to Tenten's apartment without an aide. He imagined that now his sight was about on the same level as a nearsighted person without glasses on. Navigation was fine enough, only the little details remained indistinct. 

Afternoon tilted on its zenith, early evening waiting to resume its place. Part of him recognized that it was a bit too late and improper to be heading over to a female companion’s place at the approaching-late hour he was—impropriety becoming a  _ recurring problem _ in his life now—but necessity belaid those concerns. And this was… necessary, he supposed. He needed to make things clear. He should have done so in the first place. 

Tenten’s apartment and he were closing their distance.

Neji rehearsed his lines in his head. In a situation like  _ this  _ a man required delicacy and tact. 

_ Tenten, I must explain. I did not tell Kiba anything. The only people who know of that night are the two of us. I apologize for the misunderstanding and the trouble that it caused. _

Simple enough. 

Simple enough that he should expect the unexpected in its place. Tenten, though normally composed, could be unpredictable when upset. Where strong feelings are involved, logic flees. There is danger in the absence of logic. Danger lies in the unpredictable.

This Neji kept in mind as he rang one knock, then three, then one more on her door, the “secret code” knock that she’d imagined up herself and forced on him to conduct whenever he came here. It was silly. He felt silly doing it with such pressing matters at hand.  

It took a bit of time, but a shout rang from within, “I don’t want to talk, Neji!” 

He furrowed his brows. Yes, definitely troublesome when upset. 

“Tenten.” There were his lines. “There’s been a misunderstanding. Allow me to explain.”

“...”

He knew she was no good against her curiosity. She kept him waiting for some seconds, but soon he heard the locks click and the knob turned and then he was facing her.

“Well?” She demanded, her tone lilting on impatience.

His lips did not move. “...”

“I  _ said _ —oh. Fine. Come in.”

She opened the door wider and he let himself inside.

Being that early dark was autumn’s foible he chose not to take a seat and to not let himself get too comfortable. Her bedroom was just the door at a corner’s turn, the kitchen and general living area decorated with weapons in between. He didn’t want a replication of that night, but he was surely conscious of the similar scenario presented to him right now. Neji considered whether or not that was on her mind. And then he wondered how often she’d thought about [it] over the times they’d kissed. Just how much had Tenten delved into the prospect of [it] already? Would she be offended if he asked?

But the curiousness posed was about associating [it] with Tenten and it was so odd. Didn’t she think the same of him? On what occurrences had he ever hinted at possessing such instinc—

_ Persistently, he motioned his tongue back against hers, creating a simmering hot faint pressure as their tongues lightly pushed and slid so salaciously, feverishly, and he was allowed only two short pants to breathe as he withdrew for air before she tugged on his hair and pulled him back into her lascivious— _

The memory came hurtling out of nowhere like Gai’s faux kunai that day and it was every bit as sharp and startling. Neji’s hand flew to his mouth in alarm, eyes widened, cheeks dashed with color. It had come back so treacherously vivid as though he were standing in front of the bed at this very moment, watching himself do these things—these things that were  _ impossible _ . Impossible. Was that really him?

Good  _ God _ . It was his doing all along, wasn’t it?

No. It had been completely, absolutely mutual. They’d both given all the signs, participated like consenting, eager players, and the referee that had halted the game was not shrewd prudishness or an epiphany of self-control  _ but the fearful realization that he was about to  _ play _ for the very first time _ . So he’d quit. Quit before he could lose. (Lose  _ what? _ )

“Why are you just standing there?”

Reality relapsed. 

Where-oh-where did those rehearsed lines go.

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	5. Discovering Boundaries

In the afternoon-colored evening her room was doused in tentative degrees of yellow to orange. Generally life was still. The digital clock in her living room read exactly 6:30 on the margin, glowing luminescent biogreen. Here it seemed like an artifact of the distant past. Something that was there and never changed. She'd never had the patience for analogue.

Patience, after all, was not her strong suit. This was no insult or critique—simply another integer of her person to sum up to Tenten. He tried to be considerate of her and of this fact of her character as he sat with the girl herself in her apartment, each on the couch, one with stubbornly folded arms and the other disconcerted with himself. Clearly, she was waiting for him to take action of some kind, deliver the  _explanation_ that had been promised. That had been his intent to begin with… however…

For the gods' sake, why in the world had it taken him this long, until the very moment he stood before her to realize these things. Right when he'd been prepped to put the entire affair and the misunderstandings and the uncomfortable feelings that came with it in the past. "Planning for the unpredictable"... one does such a thing not expecting the unpredictable from  _himself_.

"Aren't you going to say something? I'm not in the mood to sit around doing nothing, Neji."

His eyes were set with her but words not so fortunate. "... I understand why you're upset. I came here to tell you that you do not need to be."

"... What do you mean by that." The weather in her tone was still so omnipresent that she phrased it like an objective statement. Truly, he had a task ahead of him.

"You're under the assumption that I've told other people about that night between us."  _No use being vague or indirect about it now, after all. No, it's much too late for that. "That night," the day they'd come too close to having sex._ "And I've come to clear your mind. I haven't, and I never would consider doing so among that lot."

"... Really?" Some medley of skepticism and incredulity froze to her speech. "Are you sure about that, Neji?"

"... What did the dog boy say to you."

"That's…" Without having perfect vision or even looking at her, he sensed that her eyes were fixated on the table by her side or anywhere else which lacked a byakugan stare. "... Ugh. I don't want to have to repeat it. I don't like dirty jokes. But… considering  _recent events_ , it had awfully convenient timing. And you didn't even hint at it?"

"I would not lie."

She focused a scrutinizing gaze over him for a time, judging with curiosity and a quirked lip. Finally, her shoulders slumped with a deflated sigh, as if all of the tension in her body was at long coveted last able to escape. "... Yeah, I know you wouldn't. I believe you. But why didn't you just say so earlier today? Then I wouldn't have needed to be so mortified all afternoon!"

"The reason for that is… where I misunderstood."

"Huh? What do you mean"

"Chuunin Appreciation Day, by the camp… That date was the last time I'd spoken to Kiba, and it was the day Lee had chosen to boast to the other ninja of our side that we are in a relationship."

"What, you mean… nobody else knew before?" Her head tilted to the left.

Neji nodded. "That is why I didn't explain before. I'd thought…  _that_  was the subject whose secrecy was an issue for you."

Quick on the uptake, "... Ah. Ohhh. So that's…"

"Where we met at a misunderstanding."

"Oh, for crying out loud." She all but smacked her hand unto her forehead, eyes shut tight in frustration. "Ugh. I'm so sorry, Neji. I feel really stupid right now."

A similar snake of tension had eased off of him as well. His shoulders became a bit less rigid, and it felt good to breathe. "It's fine."

"No, I mean, besides even that. I feel bad for shoving my own personal problems down your throat. It wasn't fair."

"...?"

"What I'm saying is… I think part of me  _knew_ that you'd never brag about that to other people. And I just… wanted a reason to be mad at you."

"Why would you need something like that?" Genuine, near offended curiosity crossed his tone. Of all things, what  _more_ could he have done so wrong?

"Seriously, Neji…" Her head turned to the left so that he saw her profile, and there was… red, definite shameful red coloring her face in rosy strokes. "After everything, do you  _really_  need to ask that..."

It was a joking tone, but nonetheless one lilting on deliberation.

"... No, I suppose I don't."

"Yeah, well… It's just… Neji, we're always on the same page. We think so similarly. And then… and then, that time, it totally made sense that you wanted to stop. I'd completely misread you and tried something really stupid. So… I'm sorry, is what I'm saying..."

"..."

It was strange? He felt discontent with the way things had come to a bend. His haughty, prideful side which would never truly disappear wanted to accept her apology with a nod and leave with the upper hand. Of course he'd rather accept mistakes and faults on her behalf in place of recognizing his own.

… But. That prideful side of him, along with all other of his parts, were sides which loved her. And so wisened with love and consideration he understood that she shouldn't be the only one saying sorry. It was a humbling certainty to come to terms with.

He really had grown more mature.

"... Tenten."

She looked up at him again. There were faint levels of shame he could feel coming off of her still. It mirrored the same brutal  _shame_  he'd felt on that night, and he never wanted her to feel that uncomfortable weight that he had. Not with something like this.

"I did not… hate it."  _Of course he didn't._ "Rather… the reason I stopped you is because I did not feel ready for it."

Her head tilted. "... Huh?"

But it wouldn't hurt for her to be a little less dense.

"What I am saying to you… is that you are not at fault. You didn't… 'misread' me."

"... What? I don't get what you mean."

Neji pushed the hair in his face behind his ears, a contradictory movement as he would much rather conceal his eyes and the creeping heat emerging to the surface of his skin. He felt much like a certain Nara boy at this moment, lamenting the "total drag" this was going to be. It seemed appropriate. So he closed his eyes, took a deepened breath, and with some effort, faced her directly.  _I am speaking to_ you. He wanted her to see that.

"... I wanted you."

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End file.
